That was 2009. Now in 2013 his newest feature, Elysium, aims to further solidify
Blomkamp’s place in geekdom via a huge budget and a major star in Matt Damon. Does
it live up to the hype?
The Earth of the future is in chaos. The poor and
downtrodden live on the dying surface while the rich and elite occupy an
orbiting luxury space station known as Elysium. Ex-con-turned-factory worker
Max (Matt Damon) is injured on the job and must find a way to get to Elysium in
order to obtain treatment. In doing so he inadvertently starts a war between
the two classes.
I stated in my review of Prometheus
that I’ve always preferred science fiction to sci-fi. I love a movie that makes
me think and ponder concepts and ideas that I normally take for granted. I also
enjoy seeing things blow up real good, so when a movie can combine the two
successfully I am in hog’s heaven. That was the case with District 9. Sadly it’s not the case with Elysium.
For starters there’s way too much sociopolitical commentary
this time around. So much so that as an audience member I felt like I was being
lectured to as I watched it. Not only is there the class warfare plot, but
there is also a lot being said about immigration and universal healthcare. At
times I didn’t feel like I was watching a movie, and was instead watching a
documentary about the last two presidential administrations and the issues they
faced. Overbearing and intrusive were the words ringing in my head as the film
spun on, and in the end I felt like all the fun of the concept had been
stripped away leaving me feeling indifferent about the project as a whole. I do
encourage filmmakers to inject ideas into their films to make the audience use
their brains, but this was definitely the wrong way to do it.
Another issue is that it speeds by at such a breakneck pace
there is no time to get to know the characters, become accustomed to the world(s)
they inhabit or even understand how integral plot points or devices work. For
example – the exosuit worn by Damon’s character. We get a lot of explanation on
how it works, and once it’s installed on his body it’s like he already had been
using it for years. There are no scenes showing the acclimation to the
strength/agility augmentation on the character’s part. He just gets off the
operating table and KAPOW! he’s an instant superhero. And what’s worse is that
he barely uses it to do anything out of the ordinary! Sure he rips a robot’s
head off and is able to jump farther than usual, but that’s about it.
Lamesauce.
Yet another issue is, and I’m blaming this mostly on the
writing, Jodie Foster’s character of Delacourt, the head of Elysium’s security
forces. Not only is she terrible in the part (her performance reminded me of
her turn in Flightplan), but
Delacourt is so underdeveloped and one-dimensional that the role could have
been left out completely and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference in the
overall scheme of things. Basically the part comes down to the fact that if she
had a moustache she’d be twirling it like some old school western villain for
the entire film. Foster adds fuel to the fire by speaking in a horrible French
accent as well.
One more is the overuse of the shakycam. For crying out loud
can we retire that style of filmmaking already?! Not only does it make it hard
to see what is going on during the action scenes but it is used just for the
hell of it most times. Lock that bitch down and let us actually get a look at
the world you’ve spent all this time and money creating, would ya?!
My final major issue is that Elysium is, for all intents and purposes, a big budget remake of
the 1995 crapfest Johnny Mnemonic.
The main plot device is exactly the same - dude has information that was
downloaded into his brain and he must get it from point A to point B before he
dies. I will say that this film pulls it off way better than its predecessor
did, but that wouldn’t have taken much effort. But like most of the film it
gets lost in the myriad of way too many other things to keep track of, and by
the time the conclusion rolled around I was like “Oh yeah, that’s still a
thing. I forgot.”
On the flip side, Blomkamp knows how to fill the worlds he
created with interesting technology and cool gadgets. I especially loved the
weaponry. Bullets that explode in front of their target to cause collateral and
shrapnel damage? Check. Rail guns that obliterate anything in their path?
Check. Surface to space rocket launchers? Check. Laser targeted micro tracking
personnel mines? Check. Seeing all these things in action put a smile on my
face. I also thought the idea of the medical devices that can fix any issue,
including cancer and genetic abnormalities, was kind of rad until its use is
overused and turned into a generic plot device. The same goes for the
exo-suits. Cool idea, bad execution.
Little details are also plentiful and very welcome. The fact
that the population of Earth speaks Spanish with English as a second language
is a nice addition, and the fact that the inhabitants of Elysium all speak
French is as well. Robotic parole officers and police are fun and more than a
little awesome too.
Blomkamp can certainly make a movie look amazing. He knows
when to keep things simple (the dramatic bits) and when to go batshit crazy
(those slo-mo shots of bullets exploding or people’s faces being ripped off).
Sadly the shaky cam debacle ruins most of the shots when it rears its ugly
head. The design of the locations is like a combination of what was seen in District 9 and Blade Runner.
Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley give strong performances, but
I just wished that their parts were reversed. Seeing someone as lanky as Copley
take on the hero role would have been more appropriate since Matt Damon looks
like he could eat that scrawny dude for breakfast. Diego Luna also has a great
part as Damon’s pseudo-sidekick. Unfortunately Alice Braga, who I have not
liked in any movie I’ve seen her in (Predators,
I am Legend, City of God), doesn’t even look like she’s trying to act here, only
react. I already brought up the Jodie Foster debacle.
Look, I know I’m bashing this flick pretty hard. It has a
lot of problems. That’s not saying that it’s not entertaining. It is. It’s just
not nearly as good as District 9, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Pacific Rim, Man of Steel or even Oblivion.
There are some cool action scenes, lots of wanton violence (Blomkamp loves
having people explode in his movies) and the FX are rad. It’s just that there
is such a thing as too much story, and for a movie crammed to bursting point
with so many ideas and creative touches that only runs for 109 minutes it
implodes on itself. There’s a lot to like, but the bad outweighs the good by
far.
3 out of 5
p.s. Did it bother anybody else that Elysium looked at times
like the Halo ring? Was it a coincidence that Blomkamp nearly directed a
massively budgeted Halo flick before District 9? Hmmm…
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